Card-shaped memory cards are known as a type of recording medium that stores image data taken by digital cameras, recording medium that stores digital music data played on portable music players, and recording medium that stores created text data.
In a memory card, a flash memory is accommodated in a small resin casing that has an appearance of a thin and flat shape and that has a plurality of electrodes, which are electrically connected and are aligned in parallel at an end part of the casing.
The memory card configured this way is mounted, through a memory card connector, in electronic devices such as digital cameras, portable music players, laptop computers and mobile telephones.
As a memory card connector, a memory card connector that has a lock mechanism for preventing the mounted memory card from falling or being pulled out is known, as disclosed in, for example, Patent Literature 1.
The lock mechanism in the memory card connector of Patent Literature 1 has: a slider that, when a memory card is inserted from a card insertion slot in the card accommodating space, moves forward by being pressed by the memory card; a lock claw that is supported by the slider and that, when the slider moves toward the card mounting location, engages with a concave part on the side of the memory card and locks the memory card in the card mounting location; an ejecting coil spring that urges the slider in the direction of removal; and a lock pin that engages with a heart cam formed in the slider and that holds the slider in the mounting location.
The lock claw is supported by the slider to latch with the concave part when the slider is located on the card insertion location side. This memory card connector has a plate spring provided to project toward inside the card accommodating space, from the plate that forms the top face of the card accommodating space. By means of this plate spring, the slider is located on the card insertion location side, and the memory card, which is released from a latched state with the lock claw, is pressed against the bottom face and is held in a half-lock state.